


After the Falcon: Force Bond

by TheStarFreedom



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rating May Change, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, just fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-02-23 05:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13183068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStarFreedom/pseuds/TheStarFreedom
Summary: Spoilers for TLJ. This takes place soon after the events of Episode VIII, featuring my favorite pilots in the galaxy.





	1. the meeting

After days of only snagging a few hours of sleep—mostly during the day—whenever he could on the Falcon, the first night at their new-to-them base was too quiet compared to the constant chatter and sounds of the ship that had once lulled Poe to sleep. Home was now an old Republic fortress world, abandoned along with its outer rim planet.

Tired of pretending to be tired and exhausted of only having the images of exploding passenger ships to accompany him, Poe Dameron swung his feet off the bed and stood. He hadn’t bothered to do more than take off his jacket in his half-assed attempt to sleep, so he grabbed it off the end of his still-made cot, passing by a docked BB-8 as he exited his quarters.

He wandered the fortress, somewhat aimlessly and only following his instinct, trying to think of anything that would get the images of his dying comrades out of his mind. His first death-free thought was Yavin IV, his father who still was living there, his mother only remaining through memories, flying his mother’s A-wing as a boy, getting lost in the market. It was hard to imagine that there would ever be a day when he could return to Yavin IV without the threat of having to leave again to join a war. He hoped it would, of course. Without hope of future peace, what was the point in fighting? But he’d been flying and blowing things up for so long that he was starting to forget life outside of constant explosions and fear of death.

When he ended up opening a cracked door to the hangar, which housed only a few old ships that hadn’t flown in who knows how long and the Falcon, he wasn’t entirely shocked to see Rey sitting against a wall. Her eyes were already on him as he had walked in.

He just stood still for a few moments, looking at Rey, trying to read the expression in her eyes. “Couldn’t sleep either?”

She shook her head. “I think I’m still processing everything,” her eyes fell back to the bag at her feet, “So much has happened so quickly.” Reaching into the bag, Rey grabbed two pieces of metal and looked intently at them. Poe took a few steps forward, motivated by his own curiosity, and Rey met his gaze, holding the pieces more directly in his line of sight. “Skywalker’s lightsaber.”

Squinting, as if that made the sight any clearer to Poe’s already perfect vision, his next words felt like they had an obvious answer, but he was learning to stop being so presumptuous, “Is it supposed to be in two?”

Rey smirked, let out a breath that turned it into a small smile, “No.” So maybe be presumptuous about the obvious things. “Ren and I split it in half trying to get away from the other.” Her eyes had trained back onto the saber, and Poe moved closer and sat. The General had told him what she could, but she knew only a little more than everyone else. Other than essential details she’d shared one-on-one with Leia, the young Jedi had remained mostly silent since her reunion with the Resistance. As far as Poe knew, she’d spent most of the day with Finn in the medbay, watching Rose’s recovery in the outdated bacta tank. As far as Poe knew, maybe Finn already knew everything, maybe Rey had given him an exact play by play. He didn’t as Rey had broken away from her friend after he’d told her everything about infiltrating the First Order and the battle at Crait. She’d snuck away to the Falcon and looked through the books she’d taken from Ahch-To.

What surprised even herself was when she started giving the details to the man in front of her when she’d been hesitant to even give them to Finn. The pieces of the saber had long since dropped to the bag when Rey finished speaking. Her eyes had been locked with Poe’s the entire story, at first there had been a childlike spark that had snapped when Rey of the past was having her head nearly split apart by Snoke.

“You’re a damn good pilot,” he said to her instead of the one thought running the track of his mind, “saved all of our asses on Crait.”

“I know.” She was a good flyer, and she knew it. By no means was she the best pilot on this planet, but her pile of junk had drawn away TIE fighters from the exponentially worse piles of junk that were losing a battle. Poe’s eyes strayed from Rey’s eyes to his fingertips, which he was pressing together lightly in a halfhearted effort to distract himself. “There’s something else.”

Poe’s head snapped up, not sure if she was going to say something else or if she caught on as quickly as everyone else on this base that he couldn’t bluff to save his life. When Rey remained, silent and was studying his face again, he braced himself for sounding like a complete fool for the second time tonight. “When Leia stunned me, I was out long enough for them to board me onto the transport,” Poe paused, trying to find the best way to sound the least crazy, “but when I woke up—it didn’t feel like waking up. I think—there was this sharp pain in my head. The General stunned me in the chest, and I fell backwards. It’s probably nothing, just hit my head a little too hard.”

He put on his best bluffing face, making sure to look Rey in the eye, but he could tell just by her expression that she wasn’t buying that as a complete story.

Sighing, he leaned back onto his arms. “I think I heard you being tortured by Snoke while I was asleep. There were screams, but I finally woke up from the pain in my head.” He shook his head, looking up at the ceiling, “It either sounds like the worst line ever attempted or absolutely absurd.”

His statement was met with a few seconds of silence before Rey broke it. “It’s not absurd. When Snoke was in my head, there was something there that keeping me losing my mind, a calm to the chaos. At the time, maybe I thought it was Ben, but,” Poe’s head rolled to his shoulder so he could meet her eyes, “maybe it was you.”

“Well, then, maybe I’ll have to thank Leia for stunning me.”

Rey smiled, which made Poe smiled in return. He liked her when she was smiling. He liked her when she wasn’t smiling too, but it was the brief moment of joy that made him happiest. Especially after hearing everything that’d happened to her in the past days, it was nice to see her happy.

Tiredness finally starting to hit him, he shifted so that his back was against the same wall as Rey. She shifted a bit closer and dropped her head on his shoulder, “How long do you think until the rest of base wakes up?”

“Mmm…few hours, maybe?”

“Hmm,” Rey sighed, closing her eyes, finally feeling at peace enough to fall asleep for a few hours.


	2. the morning after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've turned this into a longer fic! (Clearly.) This will be an adventure to see if I can pull off a slow-burn type relationship for these two. Anyway, thank you all so much for the love on the first part. School's starting back so excuse me if updates are sporadic, but I really love this. I hope you do too.

“Oh, General, here they are!” Threepio raised a gold arm, turning back towards the hall where Leia was being followed by a definitely distressed BB-8. “They appear to be sleeping, should I wake them?”

BB-8 whizzed past Leia and towards Poe, stopping a few inches from his heel. It turned back to Leia, whirring a question.

“No, let them sleep,” she held up a hand to the orange and white droid.

Poe stirred from the noise—he’d always been a light sleeper—trying to keep his shoulder still but accidentally knocking his boot against Beebee. “It’s a little late for that, General.” The droid rolled back a bit, turning to the pilot and beeping at him. “Sorry, buddy,” he gave it a small smile. It tilted its head towards Rey, then back to Poe, and beeped again. “Rey’s okay, Beebee. We just had some trouble sleeping.”

“Went wandering?”

Of all the beings on this planet, Leia would be the first one—possibly only other one—that would understand Poe if he said he’d been led to Rey last night. But it felt like a sort of intrusion on Rey’s trust in him if he went spewing about to everyone about the Force connecting people. Frankly, a part of him was still skeptical about the entire thing. Instead, he simply said, “Something like that,” and looked over to Rey as she started to wake, likely from all the talking.

Her head lifted from his shoulder, and she blinked a few times before looking around to see BB-8 beeping to C-3PO while exiting the hangar and Poe listening to Leia’s appeal for him to head out to a remote planet in the outer rim and meet with an old ally of the Rebellion who might be able to help them. “And they couldn’t have helped us five days ago when we about to be blown to smithereens?”

“Poe,” the General said, warningly, “they’ve been laying low, trying to stay off the First Order’s radar since they started hunting our allies.” She took a deep breath as she searched Poe’s face, sensing his own eagerness to fly again. “If you’re not up to the flight, I can see if Threnalli is up to the task.”

“No, no, I’ll make the flight.”

“Flight where?” Rey spoke after grabbing only the last bits of the conversation between the Resistance leaders.

“Sinjan,” Leia responded, shifting her gaze to Rey, “it’s in the Albarrio sector of the Outer Rim. There was an old Rebel base there, abandoned for decades after it was invaded by an Imperial droid. The former general of that base was an old friend of mine and Han’s, and he’s been on the planet for some time now, trying to avoid any encounter with the First Order.” Leia’s eyes dropped to the ground and then rose to meet Poe’s gaze. “It seems that news has traveled quickly about the decimation of our forces and the appearance from Luke. He risked contact with us as soon as he could.”

Poe bit the inside of his lip, glancing around the hangar. They hadn’t gotten more than two of the old A-wings up to fighting standards, and they only had the fuel from the _Falcon_. With their numbers, risking two pilots felt weighty. “Captain Dameron, enlighten me please.”

“If we were just going for supplies, we could just send two pilots. But losing two is a lot when there’s only a handful of us,” Poe stood, clasping his hands behind his back, “I think I should go, but if it’s dangerous territory, I can’t risk going alone and risk losing possible supplies.”

Leia held back a smile, “Who’s our best A-wing pilot?”

The two Resistance leaders exchanged glances, missing Rey standing up beside Poe. “I’ve never flown an A-wing, but I’m damn good at flying the _Millennium Falcon_.”

“No,” Poe said immediately. Rey started to protest when he held up a hand, “We’d need a third to man the gunner. We should keep this small.” He paused, glancing at Leia, asking, “Is there a cruiser there?” She nodded, and Poe turned back to Rey. “How quickly could you pick up an A-wing?”

“I can do it, I’m a fast learner.”

He smiled and turned back to Leia, “Permission to fly, General?”

“Granted.”

* * *

 

A few hours later, they were performing the final checks on their ships. BB-8 was beeping away towards Poe, who was tucked under the ship, double checking the engines.

“Hey, watch it. I’m a perfectly capable mechanic.” He was met with more beeps and a bump on his heels.  “Yeah, I’ll make sure to check on her before we set out, Beebee-Ate.” The droid bumped into Poe once more, tilting its head to look at Poe’s face before whirring off again. “Alright, alright,” he put his hands up, the wrench dropping beside his droid, “I’m going. Scan the ship, buddy, and pull anyone you need to finish checks.”

Captain Poe Dameron walked towards the only other person in a bright orange and white flight suit. She was in the cockpit, looking over her controls, helmet in her lap. Standing at the ladder’s base, he said, “None of the controls should be a surprise on this ship. The biggest hurdle will be controlling the stabilizers without a droid. These things can really move, it’s easy to lose control.”

When he looked closer at her, he saw that she wasn’t looking so much at the controls as the helmet in her lap. He hadn’t thought about it, but she’d probably never flown anything she had to have a special uniform for. “We’ll do some low level flying checks before leaving the planet’s surface, just in case.” She remained silent. It was making Poe nervous, so he took a few steps up the ladder until his head was peeking over the edge, until he was looking her directly in the face. “Are you okay? You seem disengaged, which isn’t the most comforting feeling to have about your flight partner.”

“I’ve never flown solo for this long before.”

She looked up at him, and he shook his head, “You’re not alone. You pilot alone, yes, but we’re a team, and we fly together.” He reached into the cockpit, flicking a switch near the front. “That’s our comm link, we’ll be in direct contact with each other for the whole journey.” Poe looked back to Rey, smiled, “And I’ve seen you fly. You’re incredible.” Spinning the helmet in her hands, she looked down. He clapped the outside metal of the ship and looked over to his own, seeing C’ai Threnalli walking away from it. “If you’re ready, you can close up and follow me out.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Rey smirked as Poe jumped off the ladder and she snapped on her helmet, reminding herself that she was about to be flying a Resistance ship, no longer pretending and imagining it on Jakku. The glass closed over her as she watched the captain board his own ship just down from hers.

* * *

Low level flying checks were almost a formality. Rey was a natural. Beyond natural, she’d adjusted to the A-wing faster than Poe had. Which, to his credit, hadn’t taken any longer than it’d taken him to adjust to flying a TIE fighter. After a few minutes of flying around and getting their bearings, the pair left the planet’s surface and drifted outside of the atmosphere.

“Ready to make the jump?” Poe asked, putting in the coordinates to the Sinjan system. Rey’s ship drifted next to his. He heard a few clicks in the silence on her end before she sent out a confirmation that she was ready to jump to lightspeed. “Then let’s hit it.”


	3. the misson

Though they’d entered the planet’s atmosphere without detection, the abandoned base had been hard to find, and Rey and Poe surveyed the planet separately, conscious that at the same time, they needed to avoid detection from the surface. Rey eventually found that the entrance was hidden in a canyon, which—with all things considered—wasn’t a horrible thing. A large metal door guarded the entrance to the base, but it was cracked enough for the pilots to slip in and land properly. After shutting their engines off, a figure with a large, gnarled walking stick emerged from the back shadows.

Poe popped the glass of his ship, dropped the ladder, and emerged from the ship with his helmet tucked under his arm. The figure emerged fully, dressed in cream and brown robes, and Poe recognized the face as an aged version of the picture General Organa had shown him of General Cracken. He turned back as he heard Rey jump from her A-wing, her helmet remaining in the cockpit.

“General,” Poe greeted him, extending a hand to the man.

The man sighed, taking the captain’s hand, “I’ve not been a General for many years. I’m simply an old man who took too long not taking a side in this war.” He released Poe’s hand and greeted Rey in the same fashion. “So, the rumors are true then?” he asked after dropping Rey’s hand.

“I wish they weren’t,” Poe responded before glancing around the hangar, mostly empty save the cruiser. He’d thought there would be more remnants of the old days, maybe naively hoping that the base’s canyon entrance had protected it from scavengers, but the place was stripped almost completely bare save the ship in front of them and some junk pushed towards the walls. But the Resistance was in a tight spot, and he wasn’t going to turn down any supplies at this point. “That the cruiser?”

The general nodded once, turning towards it. “It’s been loaded with every useable thing that we could find in here.” Poe and Rey exchanged glances at the ‘we’ in his sentence, but they followed him as he walked towards the starship. Airen Cracken started up the boarding ramp, turning halfway up, “I hope you don’t mind, but I did some recruiting for you once I got in contact with Leia.”

Four figures in similar robes appeared at the top of the ramp. Between the three humans, there stood a Duros. When they came into full view, Poe swallowed and kept his head high, pushing thoughts of L’ulo out of his mind. He made sure he was standing straight as he looked at each face in front of him. Sure, it was only four new people, but seeing that everything that they’d endured recently hadn’t been for nothing. There were people out there that heard them and couldn’t stand by any longer. Even if all they did was board shit onto a cruiser, it was a good start.

He managed a small smile, “I’m Captain Poe Dameron of the Resistance,” and turned to Rey, who was absolutely beaming. “You said you loaded this thing, could we see what’s onboard?” 

* * *

Their last stop was the main hangar, and Poe couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Beautiful,” he breathed, seeing a bay nearly full of various X-wing and A-wing models. There were even a few old astromech droid models were lined up against the far wall.

“It’s not a lot,” the youngest human, a woman who looked about the same age as Rey, walked up beside Poe, toying with the end of her light red plaited hair.

“We can work with this,” Poe turned to her, thanking her. He turned to Rey, “We should dock a ship here. I’ll bring this monster back if you cover my ass.”

Rey nodded; she was confident in her flying skills, but there was no way she wanted to fly this humongous ship over the smooth speed of an A-wing. “You open the bay doors, and I’ll do the heavy lifting,” a smirk took over Rey’s face as she retreated from the aircraft.

Dropping his helmet by the entrance, he wandered around for a moment before finding the correct button to open the doors. Not more than a minute passed before his pilotless A-wing docked in the hangar. “Show-off!” Poe shouted, shutting the bay doors when he heard a soft laugh, turning back to the redhead, whose mouth was parted slightly. So maybe they didn’t know _everything._ “I’m Poe, by the way,” he glanced up from the switchboard and grabbing his helmet, rolling it from hand to hand, “I don’t think I ever properly introduced myself. You’re Kaayl, yeah?”

The woman closed her mouth to a tight line and nodded once.

“You really want to join the Resistance? After everything you’ve heard?” Snap used to joke he should be the recruitment poster boy for the Resistance, with a dashing smile and a charming lip, he could usually get anyone to sign up. He was done with those days, blindly trusting any new and dewy face that wanted to join their ranks. No, too many had betrayed them, too many had died. No more cheery, blind acceptances would come from him.

He also, wouldn’t deny them numbers.

Kaayl nodded again. “I do,” her voice softened, “I know it’s dangerous, but . . . there’s nothing left for me here. Figured I should help a good cause when they flew in.”

Poe nodded, a small smile forming, “Welcome aboard, Kaayl.” He tossed her the helmet. She fumbled with it, letting it slip from her hands, but catching it before it hit the floor.

“Captain Dameron!” Cracken’s stick sounded down the hallway before Poe had heard any footsteps. “Everything’s ready. As great company as you’ve been, it’s best not to take any chances.”

“Of course, General. Thank you for contacting us. This is truly, so incredibly helpful. The Resistance cannot thank you enough.”

Cracken grunted, “Enough flattery, Captain. Give me a moment and I’ll be out of your way.”

“You won’t be joining us?” It was Kaayl, who spoke up, more confidence and surety in her voice than there had been a few moments ago. Leia’d mentioned to Poe before they left that Cracken wouldn’t likely leave the planet with them, but she also gave him instructions not to leave the planet without trying.

“No,” his gaze dropped from her face, “no. This has been enough strain on me in my, ahem, older years.”

“We’d gladly welcome you to the base, General,” Poe spoke, taking a step forward so he was in line with Kaayl.

Cracken raised his gaze to meet Poe’s eyes. “I’m in my final days here. I’d be more of a hindrance than anything else,” he coughed again, and banged his walking stick to steady himself, “and if the First Order comes knocking, someone should be here to let you know.”

Poe took a few steps forward and offered his hand to Airen, “It’s been an honor to meet you, sir.” Cracken took his hand, shaking it firmly once before releasing. “And thank you again.”

“And thank you, Captain, for letting me feel useful to a cause again.” The elder man turned to Kaayl, who remained still for a moment before wrapping him in a hug. It was a moment before they separated, and it was Cracken who had to take a step back. He looked to both of them and said, “May the force be with you,” before turning to leave the craft.

* * *

Though Rey’s journey was alone, and fairly uneventful as there were no ships attacking them, but accompanied in spirit and voice by the five on the bridge of the cruiser. They kept her alert, and at times laughing, through the journey back to the Resistance base. All five let out a sigh of relief when they dropped from lightspeed, planet in view.

No surprise ships followed them. Just a standard pick up and retrieval. Landing was a joy. No, pre-landing was a joy because she was listening to a string of curses leave Poe’s mouth about landing. “What, never had to preciously land a starcruiser with the entire Resistance watching before, Captain?”

“Fuck!” he shouted. “I can’t concentrate when you’re jabbering on about it.” Her comms then cut out, and she shook her head with a laugh, landing a safe distance away from the cruiser.

She took off her helmet but stayed on the ship until the others landed, watching the cruiser land gracefully and a technician jog towards her. When she popped out, their voice sounded from the base of the ladder, “How’d it fly?”

“Absolutely beautifully,” she smiled, swinging her legs out of the cockpit to rest on the rungs. Rey still held the helmet in her hands as the tech disappeared under the ship. She rolled it between her hands, stuck in her own head, somewhere between base and the outer rim. Somewhere between this A-wing and the cruiser, somewhere between her and infinity were people like her, that’d heard the stories of Luke Skywalker. But now those stories were new ones. And there were people ready to fight the First Order with them.

So, as the ramp to the cruiser lowered, and four new recruits were flanking Poe, Rey couldn’t help but smile, jumping from the ship to join them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it's been a while! I've had about 90% of this chapter done for quite a while but I couldn't figure out how to end it. I finally settled on something and published it before I could change my mind.
> 
> Also, I found Airen Cracken one night in the depths of Wookiepedia, so, like forgive me if I took a few liberties with this really old guy (mostly in the idea that he would still be alive because he looked *old* in those comics), but I didn't really want it to be someone just randomly pulled from the movies. I'd rather it be a guy randomly pulled from two issues of a comic on a planet that I just made up.


End file.
